How will I vote during early voting?

Voting during early voting is the same as voting on election day. When you get to the early voting center, you will check in to vote and vote your ballot.

Like election day voting, you will vote on the touchscreen voting system. With a touchscreen voting system, you touch the screen to make, change, and review selections and cast a ballot.

There will be instructions available at the early voting centers to familiarize you with the ballot. You may ask an election judge to explain how to vote, but you must cast your vote alone, unless you are unable to do so because you have a disability or are unable to read or write the English language.

Other early voting information

At the end of each day of early voting, all voting equipment and other election supplies will be secured at the early voting center. The local boards of elections are required to file a security plan for each early voting center, and the plans will include information on how the equipment and supplies will be secured at the center. Voted provisional ballots will be returned to the local board of elections each night of early voting. After voting hours on the last day of early voting, all equipment and supplies will be returned to the local board of elections and securely stored until election day.

State law sets the criteria to determine how many early voting centers each county is required to have. The number of early voting centers in a county is based on the county's number of registered voters.

Counties with fewer than 125,000 registered voters must have 1 early voting center.

Counties with more than 125,000 but fewer than 300,000 registered voters must have 3 early voting centers.

Counties with more than 300,000 registered voters but fewer then 450,000 registered voters must have 5 early voting centers.

Counties with more than 450,000 registered voters must have 8 early voting centers.

State regulations require that the State Board of Elections determine the number of registered voters and provide each county with the number of early voting centers that are required for an upcoming election. For the 2014 elections, the number of registered voters was taken, October 22, 2013, or 8 months before the primary election, and these numbers will be used to determine the number of early voting centers for the 2014 elections.

Early Voting Legislation

In 2007, the Maryland General Assembly approved a constitutional amendment that, upon approval by the voters of Maryland, would give the General Assembly the authority to enact legislation authorizing voting before election day. See Chapter 513 (Senate Bill 1) of the 2007 Legislative Session. The proposed constitutional amendment was on the ballot in the 2008 General Election. See Question 1 for the language of the ballot question. The voters of Maryland approved this constitutional amendment, and the Constitution of Maryland was amended to reflect this change.

In 2009, legislation was enacted that established the requirements for early voting and required early voting starting with the 2010 elections. See Chapter 445 (House Bill 1179) of the 2009 Legislative Session.

In 2013, legislation was enacted that expanded the number of early voting certers and the number of days. See chapter 157 and chapter 158 (Senate Bill 279 and House Bill 224) of the 2013 legislative session.